Sturgeon is worried by benefit cut danger to children

Nicola Sturgeon provoked anger by claiming that reducing the number of student nurses and midwives was a "sensible way forward"Chris Watt/Scottish Parliament/PA

Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish Health Secretary, wants to meet the British Government’s Work and Pensions Secretary over concerns that welfare reforms will reverse the decline in child poverty.

Iain Duncan Smith wants benefits to be capped at £26,000 a year per household as part of a reorganisation of the welfare system.

The First Minister was asked about the impact of the reforms on children in Scotland by the Nationalist MSP Christine Grahame at First Minister’s Questions yesterday. Alex Salmond said that the Department for Work and Pensions’ own assessment of the impact of the cap on benefits suggested that 7,000 to 8,000 children would be hit by that proposal alone.

He said the most up-to-date figures, from 2009-10, placed the number of children in Scotland…